


Up, Down, Top, Bottom, Strange & Charm

by Anryela



Category: Andromeda Six (Visual Novel)
Genre: One True Pairing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22521916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anryela/pseuds/Anryela
Summary: Calderon Lynch is the captain of the Andromeda Six. He has had to deal with his fair share of devils chasing him as he leads and fiercely protects his ragtag crew on the A6. But all of his goals and hopes are shaken as he meets a certain traveler on his grand quest for revenge and vengeance.
Relationships: Calderon Lynch/Traveler
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	Up, Down, Top, Bottom, Strange & Charm

**Descent**

  
“On a delivery mission on behalf of the Tilaari Council of Eons to Silta Vie, the crown jewel in the shining tiara that is Goldis.” Bash dramatized in his best theater voice as he entered the bridge. “The brave crew of the indomitable Andromeda Six realized they had finally made it.”

  
I half-smiled in spite of myself. “Is the implication that we hadn’t been making ‘it’ before, Sebastian?”

  
Bash winced at the name. “No, cap, just that we’re part of the big boys club now. On official missions and no longer relying on small jobs.”

  
“Actually, most planet leaders identify as female or gender-neutral.” Ryona sailed in serenely, the doors smoothly hissing shut behind her. “It would not be a commendation to be part of a big boys club.”

  
Bash groaned. “You know what I mean. Don’t politicize me, Ryona.”

  
“You mean educate?”

  
Bash groaned again. I turned away, they could keep this up for hours and I didn’t have time for it.

  
“All ready for descent, Ayame? I walked to her navigation console where she typed away. I couldn’t help but marvel at the practiced grace with which she typed commands, calibrated the navigation system, and barked orders to the landing gear crew through her holo headset.

  
“We will be by the time everyone gets up here and buckled in for landing.” She winked. “Now are you ready for descent?”

  
I nodded. “I’m having June double check the delivery materials right now, and I confirmed with our contact that they would meet us at the landing pad at 14:00.”

  
“You know that’s not what I’m asking.” Ayame turned to look at me meaningfully but her fingers continued their well-known dance over the keys.

  
I stiffened. “I’m fine, Pilot.” Using her title in place of her name was my way of shutting down that line of questioning. Of course, I was fine. It had been years since I had been in Silta Vie, regardless of the circumstances that I had left in. _Tempus omnia vulnera sanat_. Time heals all wounds.

  
Ayame continued to stare at me, sighed, and then turned back to her screens. She tapped her headset.

  
_All passengers to the bridge at this time. We will soon begin our entry into the Goldis air space and required all passengers to be seated._

  
“Wow, Aya sounds like just like those flight attendants from those ancient color movies.”

  
“Bash, sit down before I strap you in and you aren’t able to move.”

  
“Ooh, kinky Ryona. I didn’t know you were the type. All you ever have to do is ask. You already know I love older ones.”

  
“Bash, I will suture your mouth shut.”

  
I tuned out all the chatter and buckled myself into the co-pilot chair next to Ayame. It was already a long day and getting longer by the moment. _I was ready for whatever was awaiting for me on Silta Vie, I had to be._

  
\---

  
Ayame frowned as we began our descent. “I have a bad feeling about this Calderon.”

  
“Too bad those bad feelings of yours don’t get us paid, Aya” Damon chirped from somewhere behind us.

  
“Too bad you aren’t good for anything except talk. Go play with your knives.” Ayame snapped back. I glanced over at her. It was unlike her to entertain Damon’s quips, especially so half-heartedly.

  
“What do you mean?” I asked. I felt a ringing start in my ears.

  
“Something just feels off about this. I think it has to know with you know who” Her eyebrows were knit together in worry and stress.

  
“About the mission? I doubled checked the source and drop –“

  
“No about Silta, I’ve been getting weird chatter from the air networks about political tensions surrounding the political family. And” she paused and peered close at one of the screens, “there are ships that aren’t on royal roster for cleared flights.” She started typing furiously and swore in Kitalphan. “The JPS 2020 should have departed 3 hours ago but is still grounded.”

  
“The Royal craft?”

  
“Yes” She inhaled sharply. “Actually no ships have left the Silta Vie airspace in the past 30 minutes.”

  
“Fuck.” This was quickly turning into a waking nightmare. “What are we about to fly into Ayame?”

  
Ayame turned to look at me and touched my forearm briefly. “I don’t know Calderon, but we need to be fucking ready for whatever it is.”

  
**-Contact-**

  
“Okay everyone, for the first and last time, remember your roles and don’t leave your assigned posts. This may be Goldis but we’ve been getting weird signals from the plane-“ my landing speech was cut off as our shields triggered.

  
“Someone fucking fired at us.” Ayame gasped, looking at her screen.

  
“WHAT?” I roared. My heart started beating uncontrollably.

  
The screen lit up with more dots as projectiles activated the ship’s shields. Time seemed to slow down as I watched the world I had built be put into the danger. The screen looked like a cell dividing, an exponential number of projectiles smashing into our ship.

  
“Take us out, Ayame!” Damon barked, breaking my reverie.

  
“I can’t! We’re too close to the ground to engage the thrusters.” Ayame yelled in response.

  
“Battle positions now!” The adrenaline was starting to course through my veins, putting me on auto-pilot in my own body. The lives of the crew I had secretly sworn to defend with my own life were at risk. “June, if the coast is clear, I need you to scout ahead as soon as we land. Just don’t bring another rescue dog on board. Ryona, prepare your medical supplies, we may need your services before this day is through. Bash….”

  
The next hours seem to pass by in a rush but also simultaneously as if I was trying to think through molasses. Our contacts, bless them, had hid out and waited for our arrival at the landing site and filled us in to the situation in the capital city. Jez Zovack had killed the entire royal family, king, queens, and children. Forced the Crown Council to name him king in a bloody coup to liberate the people from the royal family.

  
A blinding rage took over my sight and my hands began to shake.

  
Zovack. Again. Him. Again.

  
“We have to get back on that ship.” We had tried to push through to the drop sight but had to push back from all of the Zovack sympathizers we had come up against. Even now he was manipulating people.

  
June had said he might be able to get through and run ahead in spite of my yells. I already knew that he would use the excuse of the sound of the whistling bullets to ignore my orders to turn back. We waited as long as we dared before Damon’s intelligence connections said it was no longer safe to stay.

  
“Where in the black hole shit is June?” Damon hissed darkly. Ayame and Bash had the Andromeda 6 ready for takeoff.

  
“I’m here!” June suddenly struggled forward, carrying a large floppy bundle in his arms. “And I need emergency care for this one.” My eyes widen in shock. The bundle was a person. A bloody and bruised person.

  
“Bring her to me!” Ryona rushed forward, her medical wand magically in hand. “Where did you find her?”

  
“By the Palace where we were supposed to do the drop.” He turned to me, “Captain, there was a bridge there that wasn’t marked on the map and it seemed to lead out of the palace itself.” June spoke quickly but levelly. He had seen enough destruction and bloodshed in his short life to stay calm in situations like this.

  
I felt a throbbing start between my temples. How had this happened? How had I missed this? Some was going to pay for this.

  
“Anything else?” I found myself asking around the headache.

  
“You said I couldn’t bring a rescue dog on board, but nothing about a rescue human.”

  
**-Sight-**

  
I brooded over the metrics on the screen, squinting to make sense of the information that I was seeing.

  
“She’s awake.” June approached from my right-hand side. “And she still has no idea who she is.” I glanced at him briefly before returning to the screen. I felt the urge to snap at him rise up again. She wouldn’t have been another issue, another mouth to feed, another person to… manage, if June had just left her there. But asking June to not rescue something was like expecting gravity to flow upwards.

  
“I don’t think she’s a bad person, Calderon.”

  
I grunt in response, noncommittally. _That remained to be seen._

  
“And for what it’s worth, she at least remembered her name. It’s Auris.”

  
“And how will she be paying for her way on this ship, June?” I asked, giving him my full attention. “No one flies for free in this crew, not with the damage that we’ve taken and the Council of Eons deal not being completed.”  
“But-“

  
I raised my hand to silence him. “We drop her off at our next stop. That’s the best that I can do. I spoke with Ryona earlier and she had healed all of her wounds. That’s more than we can afford, and Oppo will be able to help her.”

  
Color began to rise to June’s cheeks. “You can’t do that! She has amnesia, you can’t let her loose on a strange planet without –“

  
My voice rose to match his “What do you mean I can’t. It’s my damn ship, June and you’d do well to remember that. If you don’t like it, you’re more than happy to go with her and live your best space cowboy life.”

  
“Space cowboy?” June sputtered, an angry blush rising to his tanned cheeks.

  
I noticed the bridge doors opened out of the corner of my eye and saw Bash and the rescue walk in. What had June said her name was? Auris. Yes, that was it. Stowaway was more apt, I thought.

  
“Can’t desert her on an unknown planet. That’s in violation of inter-galatic code 238 section a –“

  
“That only applies to wounded parties seeking help.”

  
“She is wounded and Oppo is a greedy lizard!” June was almost yelling now.

  
“According to her,” I yelled back. “She could be making it up and be part of the coup and you have no proof to tell me otherwise.”

  
“Hey Cap, June, what’s the hub bub.” Bash walked up good naturedly, his ever present smile even bigger than usual. “I spoke with Auris… I think she liked me arm” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively while flexing his bionic fingers.

  
“Captain wants to leave her at the next destination.”

  
Bash stared at me, incredulous, “you can’t be serious. She’s still hurt.”

  
“I told him the same thing, and I” I tuned them both out and turned my head to see where Auris was.

  
Damon had her almost pinned against the wall, his fingers holding her chin. It was obvious even from here that she was frazzled but also not pulling away from him. I felt a twinge of annoyance. How could he dally and flirt so easily in a situation like this? And why was she encouraging it?

  
I started walking toward them. I didn’t feel bad dropping Auris off at the next planet, but I did feel bad about leaving her in Damon’s clutches for too long.

  
“Reznor!” My voice was louder and gruffer than I intended. I really needed a drink after this week.

  
Damon stepped back from Auris, sliding his hands in his pockets as if he had been caught playing with his food.

  
“Yes, dear” his smile at me was honey sweet.

  
“Is this really the time to be messing around?”

  
Damon gasped dramatically, drawing his hands to chest for extra effect.

  
“Messing around… me? Why, Commander, I would never!” He batted his eyelashes for good measure. If I didn’t have a headache, I’d have hit him. “You all looked so cozy over there and you know… I would never want to intrude.”

  
I inhaled sharply in annoyance, and shut my eyes. My headache seemed to growing with a ferocity. “Why are y-“ I stopped. No. I needed to get things back on schedule. And that meant removing the one variable that was throwing off my entire crew.

  
“You know what, Damon, this really isn’t the time for your shit. I need you to go and do your thing. And get Bash and tell him to get Oppo on the line. We’re going to pay a visit”

  
“Yessir,” Damon mock saluted and stalked away like an angry cat with its favorite toy taken away. “Don’t wait up for me,” he called before leaving the bridge.

  
Auris shuddered slightly as if revolted at an internal thought. I found myself starting to smile in spite of myself but stopped as she turned to look at me. Her eyes were wary, and the most brilliant gold I had ever seen in my life. My mouth went dry.

  
“What are you doing here?” I found myself asking. I folded my arms over my chest so I wouldn’t smack myself on the forehead. Great question.

  
She looked at me as if I have three eyes, “Uh, excuse me?”

  
Great. It was a stupid question, and now she thinks I’m stupid. I let out an exasperated sigh and clenched my jaw in frustration. I feel the headache starting to inch its way to the back of head. I really didn’t have the time to do this right now.

  
“Look, I don’t have the time to babysit a stowaway. Do me a favor and keep off the bridge, will you?”

  
“And what else am I supposed to do?” She retorted, putting her hands on her hips. “Sir,” she spits out as an after thought.

  
I’m annoyingly surprised that she doesn’t seem upset by my ask, and doubly surprised at her question. “That’s not my problem. June was the one that insisted you be brought on board, go bother him.”

  
“What-“ she began to ask.

  
I really don’t have time for this. I usually don’t, but today especially. “I’m sorry, did I not make myself clear?” I’m tempted to loom over her. “Stay out of my way.”

  
“Play nice now, Caderon.” I heard Ayame say from behind me. I turn to look at her, “I really don’t have time for- Ayame! Get this damn ship on course, we are not going to the Kitalphan ruins for whatever festival it is now.”

  
“You uncultured human barbarian” Ayame cursed at me, with no venom in the bite. She tapped some keys and adjusted the ship away from glowing blue planets.

  
I sensed Auris leaving, and turn to her before she stepped away. “You’re from Goldis.”

  
She stopped and cocked her head, waiting for me to continue.

  
“So tell me. Do you really think this Zovack” I spit his name out, feeling a familiar betrayal poison my mouth “is going to do any better than the greedy asshole before him?” A memory threatened to rise to the surface but I crushed it before it can overwhelm me.

  
Auris looks confused, her golden eyes faraway as if willing herself to remember something. She might be a good actress, the best spies tend to the pretty ones after all, a voice whispered unbidden in my head.  
“I don’t know.” She finally responds.

  
See?

  
“You don’t know?” My voice rose with my anger, “Isn’t that what all you Goldians wanted, a fucking liberator?”

  
“Back off, Calderon” I heard Ayame, but more felt the threat of her too calm voice.

  
But I couldn’t help myself. My ship was falling apart, my head was about to split open, and I have this stowaway that was most likely lying through her teeth. “How do I know you’re not one of his lackies? Maybe this whole ‘memory-loss’ ploy was a way to get on this ship.”

  
Red splotches appear on Auris’ pale cheeks, “You think I want this?” Her pupils dilated with emotion as her gaze bore into me. “To not know who I am?”

  
“Who knows what you’d say to worm your way into my crew” Good, good. I took a step toward her, my anger, sadness, and stress threatening to boil over and drown this woman before me in hatred. But, to her credit, she didn’t move or flinch.

  
“You’re unbelievable.”

  
“And you’re becoming a pain in my ass, stowaway. So I’ll ask one final time” I jab a finger in her face even though I can see try to hurt the in her eyes. I knew I wasn’t being kind but I couldn’t care at the moment. “Are you working for Jes Zovack?”

  
Her expression changed from anger to confusion. “Who?” she said stupidly.

I resisted the urge to pick her up and tie her down and – I stop at the next image that came unbidden to my brain. “What the hell are you doing on my ship?”

  
She started to shrug but stopped herself. “Your guess is as good as mine. Captain.” She drew out the word as if tasting it in her mouth and decided it was unpleasant.

  
“I’m going to keep my eye on you until we get to the next destination.” I just want things to be back to the orderly way they were before she came on this ship.

  
She coughed but I could have sworn I heard her say pervert.

  
I really did need a drink. And I wasn’t going to get anything out of being a huge asshole to this woman that might be telling the truth. Don’t fall into her traps. “Do you really not remember anything?” I asked more gently than I had intended.

  
She shook her head without breaking eye contact. Her pupils dilated further, making her eyes just gold rings.

  
I inhaled sharply and waved her away from me before she could see the blush rise in my cheeks. “Whatever, I’ve got things to do. I’ll have someone check on you later.”

  
“Fine.” She responded.

  
I grinned, maybe she wasn’t as stubborn as I had initially thought. “So you do have a lick of common sense after all.” I laughed. It felt so good to laugh. I so wanted to believe she was a good person.

  
I stepped away from her after mentioning that we would drop her off on Teranium to continue my conversation with June. I sensed Ayame was itching to get her teeth into her.

  
It was hours later when I finally decided it was time to step away from the bridge. Bash had finally told me there was a huge hole in the cargo hold and I had spent hours strategizing if and how we could fix it with the limited resources that we had left to us. I was about to go to the ship’s gym when Ayame stopped me. “You better go talk to her.”

  
“Who?” I asked, even though I knew who she meant. And she gave me a look that said she knew I knew who she meant. I had found myself unintentionally thinking of those golden eyes over the past few hours, and that sad smile...

  
“You were a huge asshole to her earlier, Calderon, go to talk to her.”

  
“Yea,” I sighed. “You’re right.”

  
\-----------


End file.
